Technology making cars smarter, safer

Monday

Oct 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 7, 2013 at 5:13 AM

The big, black Mercedes-Benz is going 70 mph on the freeway, making minor steering adjustments to hold the lane. The driver has taken his hands off the steering wheel. A computer is driving. After maybe 10 seconds, the steering-wheel icon on the dash turns bright red, as if to say: " Dude! Hands back at 10 and 2."

The big, black Mercedes-Benz is going 70 mph on the freeway, making minor steering adjustments to hold the lane. The driver has taken his hands off the steering wheel. A computer is driving.

After maybe 10 seconds, the steering-wheel icon on the dash turns bright red, as if to say: “ Dude! Hands back at 10 and 2.”

Forget about Google Inc.’s self-driving Toyota Prius, jammed with technology that only a legion of professors can understand. Autonomous driving is already here on vehicles in dealer showrooms. It’s packed into the safety features on this $100,000 flagship Mercedes S550 sedan; on the new Acura MDX SUV that sells for half that price; and on less-expensive vehicles such as the Ford Fusion, which can parallel park itself.

The industry is still a long way from sending unmanned cars to the grocery, but automated safety systems are starting to have a real effect in protecting passengers and limiting accident damage, according to regulators and insurance-industry experts.

Such systems can alert drivers to an impending rear-end collision — and slam the brakes. They can stop a vehicle from hitting a post as it backs up. They can track the speed of the vehicle in front and adjust speed to maintain a safe distance. Some warn a driver when a vehicle is about to wander out of its lane; they then steer it back on course. Another system automatically adjusts headlamps to better illuminate turns.

“We think these systems can make a huge difference in saving lives,” said David Strickland, chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Forward-collision avoidance systems, which automatically hit the brakes and tighten seat belts, have reduced property-damage claims on some Mercedes and Acura models by 14 percent, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute, an Arlington, Va., organization that analyzes crash data for the insurance industry. More important, they lowered bodily-injury claims — in which the driver of one vehicle is accused of hurting someone in another — by 16 percent in the Mercedes and 15 percent in the Acura.

A system that comes on the Volvo XC60 SUV has even better results, reducing the types of crashes that occur in city traffic and parking lots. It slashed injury claims more than 33 percent.

“That is a huge number,” said Matt Moore, a vice president at the institute.

Front-to-rear crashes are the most frequent on the road, so the systems could make a huge dent in injury totals, Moore said. Eventually, that should make insurance rates lower for autos with these safety features.

Other systems merely aid the driver, such as headlights designed like eyeballs that track turns in the road. These steerable headlamps turn in the same proportion that a driver turns the steering wheel.

A Mazda system called Adaptive Front Lighting has reduced property-claims frequency by more than 10 percent. Similar systems have lowered claims 9 percent in some Volvo models and about 5 percent in certain Mercedes and Acura models.

The latest safety technology relies on a suite of technologies working together, including radar, stereoscopic cameras, ultrasonic sensors, lasers and infrared cameras. Given the complexity, it’s no surprise that drivers run into glitches.

Vehicles with adaptive cruise control — the system that tracks vehicles ahead — can be prone to an odd hiccup. Driving at highway speeds on curvy roads, the sensors could mistake a vehicle in the next lane for a vehicle directly ahead, causing the car to slow unnecessarily. This isn’t unique to Mercedes and has cropped up in Los Angeles Times tests of Honda Accords and other models with adaptive cruise control.

Vehicles equipped with automatic braking can be similarly fooled. Say you are following a car that flashes its right blinker before turning. You know the car is turning, so you don’t brake. The forward-collision system has no idea that the car is turning, so it triggers the brakes, thinking it is saving you from yourself.

On a drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, the Acura MDX lane-keeping system proved easier to use and more fluid than the Mercedes system.

The challenge for automakers is to find the balance between effective and irritating, said Steve Kenner, global director of Ford’s Automotive Safety Office. That’s one reason why Ford hasn’t added automotive braking to its forward-collision warning system.

Still, Ford is working to get more driver-assist technologies into vehicles such as its Fusion SE, a midpriced family sedan.

Adaptive cruise control with forward-collision warning adds $995 to the price of a Fusion SE that starts at $23,855. The parking system, which includes a sensor that alerts a driver who is about to back into a vehicle or object, is an $895 option. A package that includes the parking system, blind-spot warning and lane keeping costs $1,100.

“We try to bundle the things that customers want the most, but at the same time not force them to spend more than they want to,” said Samantha Hoyt, marketing manager for the Fusion.

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